Ignoring The Barking Dogs’ One Year Statistics

The blog was begun on January 1, 2011 because of the urging of some RV Dreams forum participants and with the hope that forcing myself to write more just might cause me to do more with the book that I am writing.

While there have been no real advancements of the book, anyone who read the Christmas post got a wee taste of how I plan to do the book. While there will be pages with only photos on them, a lot will have comments by me as to what the photo means to me. So, maybe it would be better if I didn’t write any more pages for the book.

I am not the best of writers, and following the advice of others on blogs, my grammar is sort of a form of “Okie-ism,” if such a word existed. It is just down-home simple English but with some colloquialisms as well. Oh, and some big words. While I hope for the book to be more formal, it is my thought to keep it simple.

I have been told that the book might have more interest if I didn’t write it in the first person, but in third person instead. Their thought is that with it written in third person, the reader can insert themselves within the text of the book, and it kind of becomes their own. While that method of writing might be all fine and good, and a reasonable consideration, the purpose of the book is to share my photos and my thoughts about them and God’s beauty.

While the book isn’t really going anywhere, and neither are we since we are “static” full-timers, I found the statistics for the blog to be interesting. I did not set out to create a large following, or to make myself write every day, but I was also concerned that I would become like some other bloggers that might only write once every week or so, or even longer.

I finished 2011 with 168 posts, so it works out a bit less than once every two days that I submitted some thoughts to words and posted them. In addition, I tried to post a few pictures of my own, although most of my better ones have still not been posted. I’ve got to learn how to add watermarks to the photos so they can’t be stolen by others for their own use.

In addition, there have been 148 comments, although some of those have been comments by me in answer to the comments or questions of others. Some of those comments of others have led me to create blog posts in answer to or to refute the comments that were made. I love a good dialogue of ideas, but one has to know that I am pretty demanding that one’s comments be accurate, and some haven’t been accurate.

There have been 12, 191 page views, although in the beginning I didn’t know to set the blog parameters to not count my own views of the blog, so the actual number of page views are probably closer to around 11,000.

Top Ten Topics by Page Views

1. Akiane Kramarik Revisited 561 page views

2. The Colton Burpo Story and Perhaps Then Some 448 page views

3. Another RV Modification Made 393 page views

4. Awesome: It’s the End of the World 321 page views

5. EZE-Kleen Sewer System 258 page views

6. It’s Gone…and Just in Time for Disaster 208 page views

7. What Does the Bible Say? 182 page views

8. Using a Transmission with Tow/Haul 132 page views

9. The Pioneer Woman 103 page views

10. Walk With Me As I Age 102 page views

Huh, fancy that….very little in the way of political interest in the top 10. But, the sewer system and the joke entry of “Walk With Me As I Age” really surprise me to be in the top ten. I could say that some of you folks out there are weird, but then I’d have to admit to being weird myself. Oh, wait….I guess I am.

Now, how about the audience and their locations? That was extremely surprising to me to see the different countries that were represented by readers of the blog. Obviously, the most were located in the United States, but the other countries really amazed me. How did those folks get here?

Audience Statistics

United States 10,046

Canada 286

Russia 238

Germany 219

United Kingdom 170

Ukraine 142

Australia 80

France 78

Poland 54

Latvia 52

While it is not reflected in the above list, the viewers from another country really surprised me, and that was Iran. I don’t remember the number of viewers, but it would probably be between 25 and 50. Also, of the above list of numbers, 13 views were actually from today, January 1, 2012. While I’m not burning up the internet with a huge array of viewers and visitors, I’m still impressed that so many have found what I have to say to be interesting.

I just always thought I just ran off at the mouth a lot.

The following is not my own writing, but it was brought to my attention in worship services today. The story of the author is interesting in that she wrote something like 80 different hymns. However, I leave you with a poem of hers, hoping that it touches your lives.

Thank you all for having an interest in us. May God continue to bless you and I hope we can someday meet.

Another Year Is Dawning

Another year is dawning, dear Father, let it be
In working or in waiting, another year with Thee.
Another year of progress, another year of praise,
Another year of proving Thy presence all the days.

Another year of mercies, of faithfulness and grace,
Another year of gladness in the shining of Thy face;
Another year of leaning upon Thy loving breast;
Another year of trusting, of quiet, happy rest.

Another year of service, of witness for Thy love,
Another year of training for holier work above.
Another year is dawning, dear Father, let it be
On earth, or else in Heaven, another year for Thee.

Words: Fran­ces R. Hav­er­gal, 1874. She wrote these words as a po­em for her New Year’s greet­ing cards. The hymn was sub­se­quent­ly in­clud­ed in her Un­der the Sur­face, 1874, and Life Chords, 1880.

October 2011; Sunset on Lake o’ the Cherokees (Grand Lake), Oklahoma